For photographers: Is This Something?

Published by Claire Gould on March 15, 2024March 15, 2024

If there’s been a seismic shift in wedding photography into the 21st century, it’s focused around authenticity. In my years writing about weddings I’ve seen photography trends shift from vintage through fine art and into a new emergence of fashion photography. There’s been one constant, and it’s evolved in the most beautiful of ways: documentary wedding photography.

As English Wedding has grown and thousands of weddings have appeared on our screens, I’ve learned to understand the subtleties of great wedding photojournalism. As someone who spends most days looking at wedding photos, I know it’s the stop-you-in-your-tracks reality of authentic images which call to me above any others.

I know many wedding photographers incorporate some documentary style images into their portfolios. I also know there’s a true art to capturing natural photos during a wedding day, which is about more than a handful of candids or relaxed portraits or guest images.

York Place Studios‘ images have always carried their own genre of magic. The composition, interest and humour in their wedding galleries have the power to slow my scrolls like nothing else. These are images that make you stop, scroll back, and smile as you spot a detail, a glance or a carefully constructed frame – something special that stands out from the crowd.

And that’s why I was so excited to see the launch of Is This Something? – an insight into the documentary wedding photography of the UK’s very, very best.

In this 300+ page exploration of the documentary artform, brother & sister duo Liam & Dominique Shaw reveal their photographic process and philosophies in full. Read their ideas, see their settings, examine their contact-sheets and discover their methods, settings and techniques throughout every stage of a wedding day, from the big “set pieces” to the most seemingly insignificant moments.

“Over nearly two decades we have forged a style of shooting that we love; a way of embracing spontaneity that brings excitement to each and every shoot. We want to help others to find that same passion – that same joy in creating images and confidence in the ability to find them wherever you choose to look. Our passion is documentary photography, but whether shooting documentary, landscapes, portraits, editorial or any other style, we hope that the resources here on “Seemingly Insignificant” can assist you in your path and help you to see and capture more photographic opportunities.” ~ Dominique and Liam Shaw, authors of Is This Something?

Alongside the book, the team behind Seemingly Insignificant offer photography and videography workshops and mentoring, and are sought after by some of the biggest conferences in the world; headlining events as far and wide as Bali’s Limitless, Germany’s Keep It Real and Poland’s Boring Workshop along with Europe’s biggest wedding photography convention BodaF. Their mission: to open eyes and minds to more possibilities; to see more photographs and develop new ways to understand and capture moments.

Buy Is This Something? and find out more at https://seeminglyinsignificant.com